After two weeks away, MPs were back and ready to carry on with the Grand Inquest of the Nation. With Harper still off in Europe, it was a question as to whether there would be a front-bench babysitter answering questions, or just ministers and parliamentary secretaries in the leaders’ round. Thomas Mulcair led off by asking about the situation in Ukraine, and David Anderson read a pro forma statement about travel bans and economic sanctions. Mulcair then turned to the Supreme Court ruling on the Nadon reference, and wondered if the government would accept the ruling. Peter MacKay stood up to reiterate that they got legal opinions beforehand, that they were surprised by the decision, and they felt that Nadon was a legal expert, and would study the decision. Mulcair then asked if the new minister of finance would abandon the national securities regulator project. Joe Oliver, in his debut answer in his new role, but said that he would wait for the new critic to ask in order to be fair to him after he took such a major pay cut. Mulcair then moved onto the elections bill, and Pierre Poilievre invited Mulcair to call witnesses before the committee, saying the bill would “protect” our system of democracy. Scott Brison led off for the Liberals, and asked about the coming cuts to infrastructure funds. Denis Lebel answered that they were increasing funds. Brison reminded him that the funding commitments were back-end loaded and that communities would have to hike property taxes in the interim, but Lebel insisted the preamble was wrong. Marc Garneau took another stab at the question in French, and got the same answer from Lebel.

Round two, and Nathan Cullen got his chance to ask about Oliver’s predecessor’s statements about quantitative easing (Oliver: It’s a non-conventional way to expand the monetary supply that wasn’t necessary in Canada), whether Oliver supported income splitting (Oliver: It was a good policy for seniors and can be a good policy for families), Turmel asked the same in French (Oliver: repeated the answer in French), and then asked about household debt levels (Oliver: Canadian families are better off today under our government), Peggy Nash asked about ATM fees (Oliver: We’ve taken action on all of these areas), Annick Papillon asked about credit card fees (Oliver: We are making strides with financial literacy), Glenn Thibeault asked about online credit card fraud (Oliver: You only talk about protecting consumers but we’ve taken action), and Craig Scott and Alexandrine Latendresse asked about the redacted briefing books on Poilievre’s transition documents (Poilievre: You don’t want to answer questions on your branch offices). Stéphane Dion asked about the Nadon reference (MacKay: We got legal opinions and will examine the decision), and Scott Simms asked about the international condemnation of the elections bill (Poilievre: Look at the great stuff in this bill!) Françoise Boivin asked about the vacant Quebec seat on the Supreme Court (MacKay: There is a pool of candidates and I’ve consulted with the Chief Justices of the Quebec courts, and we got a list of candidates) and why Vic Toews was made a judge despite his inflammatory comments (MacKay: There is a judicial appointments committee), and Chris Charlton and Alexandre Boulerice tried to ask about Senator Meredith’s expenses, but the Speaker shut them both down as it was not government business.

Round three saw questions on the expiration of hyena 2004 health accord, the grain transport backlog, the “social contract” with veterans despite the arguments of government lawyers, Syrian refugees, the news that the Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation would be scrapped, demands for a national inquiry on missing and murdered Aboriginal women, the scourge of nickel dust in the Port of Quebec, more questions on the Nadon reference, and the government’s planned response on the prostitution laws being struck down.

Overall, it was a scattershot day, trying to catch up on all of the things missed over the past couple of weeks, and the new ministers and critics were still genial to one another. It was also encouraging to see that the Speaker shut down those questions on senators’ expenses, and that he’s starting to more clearly enforce what questions constitute government business.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Alexandrine Latendresse for a purple top with a keyhole neckline, and to Greg Rickford for a dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a pale green tie. Style citations go out to Bal Gosal for a medium grey suit with a pink shirt and a blue and red tartan tie, and to Marie-Claude Morin for a shiny green tanktop with a sheer black polka dot bolero-cut shirt.